38
Per Curiam
General, in preclearing the 1968 Code, [had] thereby approved by reference the City's 1966 Charter amendments." City of Rome v. United States, 472 F. Supp. 221, 233 (DC 1979), aff'd, 446 U. S. 156 (1980); see also 472 F. Supp., at 233 ("Rome argues that its Charter, having been amended in 1966 to provide for majority voting, did not provide for plurality voting in 1968, and that therefore the 1968 Code mandated majority voting").
This Court rejected Rome's claim because the submission of the 1968 code did not submit Rome's 1966 charter for pre-clearance "in an unambiguous and recordable manner." 446 U. S., at 170, n. 6 (internal quotation marks omitted). Georgia's submission of the 1968 code "informed the Attorney General only of [Georgia's] decision to defer to local charters and ordinances regarding majority voting" should a city choose to include a voting provision in its charter as permitted by the deference rule. Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis added). Georgia's submission of the 1968 code did not give the Attorney General "an adequate opportunity to determine the purpose of [Rome's 1966] electoral changes and whether they will adversely affect minority voting." Id., at 169, n. 6.
Indeed, Georgia's submission of the 1968 code did not even arguably constitute a request for preclearance of the 1966 change to Rome's charter. Given that the unprecleared charter amendment was a nullity as a matter of federal law, the 1968 code did not change the law in Rome. Rather, it deferred to the plurality-vote requirement in the pre-1966 charter. In this case, however, the 1968 code is what changed the law in Monroe. Accordingly, unless the Attorney General's preclearance of the code was a nullity, there has been no violation of the Voting Rights Act.
In short, City of Rome rejected Rome's effort to use the submission of the 1968 code to validate the 1966 municipal electoral changes. City of Rome, in discussing the "decision to defer to local charters," recognized that the case arose
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